Kimber: Ever get a tune stuck in your head on auto-play? Like, it goes around and around and around and Will. Not. Shut. Up? (Advertisers spend million$ coming up with this stuff. No idea what that means. But I know this is true cuz Mom says so.)

Anyway, Mom has author John Grisham stuck in her head these days. So we thought we’d share. From three of his novels that one of us finally got around to reading, The Street Lawyer and The Brethren. And The Boys From Biloxi. Here goes:

The Street Lawyer

By John Grisham

“Don’t let it happen again.”

Attorney Michael Brock hears these five words in a Washington, D.C. morgue. Five words that turn his life upside down.

The Fast Track

Michael Brock is a hot shot lawyer on the fast track to making partner at a high-powered law firm in Washington, D.C. Until a homeless man and a dramatic hostage situation changes everything.

Oops

When Brock discovers that his law firm, Drake & Sweeney, played a part in several recent evictions that eventually resulted in the hostage drama, Brock takes a good long look in the mirror. He doesn’t like what he sees. Michael Brock learns an important lesson related to the most hair-raising day of high life: Money isn’t everything. And chasing it could mean losing everything.

Post-hostage crisis, Brock isn’t sure what to make of his job. His law firm. The partners. His crumbling marriage. Or the homeless man who almost ended everything. Brock leaves his desk and starts walking.

PB & …

Somehow he finds himself making peanut butter sandwiches in a homeless shelter on a freezing cold winter night. He befriends a four year-old boy, Ontario. The youngster, his mom and his three siblings have recently been evicted.

When Brock later learns that the little family died of asphyxiation while trying to keep warm in the car they’re living in, he’s shattered. Brock decides he’s a human first and a lawyer second. (Who knew?)

Exit, Stage Left

So Brock leaves Drake & Sweeney to become a “street lawyer ‘for the homeless. In so doing, Brock gets a crash course in “things they don’t teach you in law school.”

Mom was hooked, by the end of chapter 2. Line and sinker.

The action unfolds over the course of about a month. It opens a window into the legal world and  the ruthlessness of a “silk stocking” law firm as seen through the eyes of a young and ambitious associate.  

Classic Grisham

The storyline is classic Grisham:

• A young and vulnerable protagonist suddenly finds himself fighting tooth and nail against overwhelming odds and powerful antagonists.
• Suspense dances on the edge of a knife.
• Colorful characters practically stand up and walk.
• A compelling plot races to a white-knuckled conclusion like Secretariat hurtling around the final turn at the Belmont Stakes.

Along the way, The Street Lawyer takes readers on an engrossing and compelling trip into social issues that could’ve been torn from today’s headlines. Or maybe tomorrow’s. Thus, The Street Lawyer is perhaps less a “legal thriller” than it is an attempt to raise awareness about the plight of the homeless in America.

Meanwhile, it’ll take all of Brock’s legal prowess and then some to find what he’s looking for, both inside the courtroom and out. The stakes couldn’t be higher as Drake & Sweeney pull out all the stops to cut him down to size and protect their bottom line.

The Brethren

By John Grisham

Okay, okay. So the first thing you’re probably asking is the same thing one of us asked when Mom first picked up this book: Who are “The Brethren”?

Good question. Let’s just say “the Brethren” are… not what you’d expect. As a matter of fact, they’re three inmates of a minimum security prison in Florida. Two are disgraced former judges. One is an ex-justice of the peace. Together, the trio of crooks cooks up an elaborate mail/extortion scam that threatens to derail a presidential campaign.

U.S. Rep. Aaron Lake of Arizona is a widower who’s being readied for the Oval Office. But he’s actually being manipulated by expert puppet master Teddy Maynard, who also heads up the CIA.

Dual Plot Lines

The use of dual plot lines between the Florida prison and Lake’s presidential race is an intriguing literary device, paralleling corruption in both the prison and at the highest levels of government. It’s pretty effective at pulling readers in and keeping them turning pages.

It’s also pretty cynical. And that gets kinda old. Besides. We can’t get Robert Redford as Bill McKay in The Candidate out of our heads. Also, the CIA cat-and-mouse game with scuzzy lawyer Trevor just goes on forever and ever amen. As in, waaaay too long.

Smoke & Mirrors

But just so ya know, this isn’t really a “legal thriller” so much as it is a political smoke and mirrors, dark doin’s in the dead of night and smoke-filled basement deals kind of story about politics gone awry (Hello, The Manchurian Candidate).

Not Great

So while The Brethren is a good story, we wouldn’t call it a great one. For one thing, it fails to kindle any real connection with any of the characters. We don’t really care about these people. They’re cynical, jaded, scheming, conniving and manipulative.

Kimber: I’d rather hang out with the neighbor’s cat!

Mom: Me, too.

Overall, The Brethren is a pretty entertaining read with some surprise political twists. Just look out for the neighbor’s cat, okay?

The Boys From Biloxi

By John Grisham

Yeppers. John Grisham has penned a glittering galaxy of fast-paced, high intensity and highly readable legal thrillers over the course of his impressive writing career.  Maybe that’s why The Boys From Biloxi is so disappointing.

Two?

John Grisham fans may rightly ask, “Who are you and what have you done with John Grisham?” after reading through this 454-paged tome. Because it almost reads as if two different authors may have penned it.

The basic story is set is Biloxi, Mississippi. Besides being known for stunning beaches and succulent seafood, Biloxi was long known for massive corruption, violence, and vice. All of the above and pretty much every other illegal activity you can imagine was controlled by the shadowy “Dixie Mafia.”

In 1960s-70s Biloxi, the Dixie Mafia is untouchable. Nobody arrests them. Nobody squeals. Nobody snitches. And no one cooperates with the D.A. – unless they have a death wish. Since the vice industry rakes in mountains of cash annually, most local law enforcement looks the other way and is paid handsomely for so doing.

Angles

That’s one angle of the story. The other is about two boyhood friends, Keith Rudy and Hugh Malco. Best buds as children, their lives take vastly different paths beginning in their teen years.

Keith Rudy’s father is Jesse Rudy. Jesse is a crusading, hard-charging prosecutor who vows to “Clean up the Coast.” Keith follows in his father’s footsteps and becomes a lawyer.

Hugh Malco’s father is mobster crime boss Lance Malco, top dog in Biloxi’s seamy underside and criminal underground.

A Showdown

As the story unfolds over 400+ pages, the stage is set for a colossal showdown between the former friends. Keith is on the right side of the law. And Hugh is up to his neck in the town’s criminal underworld.

When these two face off, Biloxi will never be the same.

So far, so good.

The problem is that it takes forever to get there. Like, about 200 pages. Bogged down by a slew of bunny trails that neither advance the plot nor round out any characters adequately, the first half of this book moves with the speed of a growing redwood. The rooster fighting scene and boxing scenes are like, what? Why is this even in here? Other characters, such as corrupt sheriff “Fats” Bowman, are straight out of Central Casting.

Jake 2.0?

Jesse Rudy is noble, determined, and intrepid. He drips integrity. He feels like Jake Brigance 2.0. As in, Been there. Done that.  (You’ll get that if you’re familiar with Grisham’s prior work.)

While it has its moments, the first half feels as dry as an Iowa cornfield in August.

The Second Half

And that’s too bad. Because Grisham hits his stride in the second half. Here the story picks up steam, racing toward a thundering conclusion like a runaway freight train. Unfortunately, the plot takes a circuitous, loquacious and meandering route to get there. Whether or not readers will stick around that long is open to question.

Skip

As an alternative, you could always just skip the first half of the book and jump in around the halfway mark. There. Just saved you 200 pages. And a hefty dose of No Doze.

That being said, the ending is worth the price of admission. Grisham seems to return to type in the final chapters, with clear, crisp writing that’s as fresh as a new day and as bright as the North Star. Patient readers are in for a classic “Grisham-esque” conclusion if they can hang on until the very end.  

***

Kimber: Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Now if one of us can just get that stupid “Plop, plop, Fizz, fizz” jingle out of her head. By the way. Did I really eat the whole thing? “Askin’ for a friend.”